Explore the ins and outs of social media management with this complete guide. We unpack the key components of social media management and what’s critical to make sure your brand stays relevant.
Social media management is a catalyst for positive business impact. A strong social media presence amplifies a brand’s awareness, supports customer care and extends reach to new audiences. Effective influencer collaborations can create lasting audience connections. Well-timed creative visuals and copy can change how consumers perceive an organization.
Over the past few years, we’ve watched businesses like Duolingo and Patagonia earn new fans—and customers—from their innovative brand accounts. Their success is part of a carefully crafted approach to building and maintaining a social media marketing strategy.
In this guide, we’re breaking down all the moving parts that go into making social strategies run smoothly. Use these social media management fundamentals to inform your company’s processes, so you can build a follow-worthy presence across the platforms that matter most.
Social media is an integral part of most companies’ marketing strategies these days However, managing social media can be challenging, especially for large enterprises with multiple brands and locations In this comprehensive guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about successfully managing social media for a company in 2023.
Why Social Media Management is Critical for Businesses
There are several key reasons why actively managing your company’s social media presence is so important
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Increased brand awareness and reach – Being active on social media increases your visibility and helps more people discover your brand.
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Improved customer engagement – Social platforms allow you to directly interact with customers and build relationships,
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Drives website traffic – Links shared on social media refer visitors back to your site.
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Market research – Monitoring social conversations provides insight into your customers’ needs.
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Lead generation – Social media is a proven lead and sales driver when managed strategically.
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Reputation management – Managing reviews and reactions to your brand on social media protects your reputation.
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Competitive analysis – Track your competitors’ social activity to stay ahead.
Simply having social media accounts isn’t enough. You need a strategy for managing them effectively to maximize the benefits.
Developing a Social Media Marketing Strategy
Before diving into posting content and engaging with followers, it’s important to develop a robust social media marketing strategy. This provides direction for your activities on social platforms.
Here are some tips for creating a successful social media strategy:
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Set concrete goals – Examples could include driving website traffic, generating leads, boosting brand awareness, etc. Metrics will help track progress.
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Research your target audience – Analyze demographics, interests, behavior, and preferences to create relevant content.
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Audit your existing accounts – Review current follower counts, engagement levels, types of content, etc.
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Define your brand’s voice – Determine the tone, perspective, and style you want your brand to exhibit on social platforms.
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Pick key platforms – Choose where to focus your efforts based on where your audience is most active.
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Develop content pillars – Outline themes and topics to create content around like industry news or thought leadership.
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Map out campaigns – Plan hashtag campaigns, partnerships, giveaways, and promotions to support goals.
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Set measurements – Identify key metrics like engagement rate, follower growth, lead generation, etc. to track progress.
Regularly revisiting your social strategy ensures it stays optimized as your business evolves.
Managing Multiple Social Media Accounts
For large companies, managing multiple brand accounts across different social platforms quickly becomes complex. This process requires organization and management tools.
Here are some tips for streamlining workflow across multiple social media accounts:
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Use social media management tools – Platforms like Hootsuite and Sprout Social allow you to manage all profiles from a single dashboard.
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Develop processes – Document procedures for handling account administration, content creation, community management, etc.
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Segment admin access – Control which team members have access to which accounts to prevent overlap.
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Share posting calendars – Collaborative calendars provide an overview of planned content across accounts.
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Moderate comments collectively – Funnel mentions and messages to the right teammates to improve response times.
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Analyze data collectively – Get a high-level look at performance instead of reviewing each account separately.
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Store shared assets – Have easily accessible libraries for visuals, logos, imagery, and other creative assets.
Streamlining these elements creates consistency, improves efficiency, and makes scaling your social media efforts much simpler.
Creating Engaging Social Media Content
Your content is the backbone of your social media marketing strategy. Crafting content that resonates with your target audience is key to achieving your goals.
Follow these best practices for creating engaging social media content:
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Leverage different formats – Mix up posts between text, images, video, Stories, live video, etc. to add variety.
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Align content with pillars – Stay consistent with core themes and topics outlined in your strategy.
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Incorporate UGC – User-generated content like reviews, testimonials and photos from real customers adds authenticity.
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Localize content – Tailor posts with location-specific details when relevant, like for franchise businesses.
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Use strategic calls-to-action – CTAs should match your goals, like driving to your website, signing up for a promotion, etc.
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Find inspiration from competitors – See what types of content perform well for other brands in your industry.
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Test different content types – Try out new formats and creative concepts, and double down on what performs best.
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Maintain brand consistency – Adhere to brand guidelines for tone, visuals, messaging, etc. across accounts.
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Schedule and plan ahead – Use content calendars to map out upcoming posts and themes.
Constantly experimenting gives you the data you need to determine optimal content strategies.
Managing Paid Social Media Ads
In addition to organic content, paid social media ads are an effective way to expand your reach, target specific demographics, amplify messages, and drive actions.
Here are some tips for successfully managing paid social campaigns:
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Set aside a dedicated budget – Determine how much you can feasibly spend based on potential ROI.
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Research advertising options – Each platform has multiple ad formats like video ads, carousels, Stories ads, etc.
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Define your target audience – Use options like interests, behaviors, and demographics to narrow your focus.
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Test different placements – Experiment with targeting feeds, Stories, Marketplace, etc. to see what works.
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Develop succinct messaging – Craft compelling copy and creative that quickly conveys your value proposition.
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Link to optimized landing pages – Send traffic to relevant pages with clear calls-to-action.
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Start small to test concepts – Run small scale tests first before increasing budgets on winners.
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Track conversions – Use pixels and analytics to understand your pipeline impact.
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Optimize for performance – Adjust targeting, bids, placements and creative based on results.
Well-managed paid ads and organic efforts should complement each other.
Handling Online Reviews
User-generated reviews on social networks like Facebook and Instagram as well as third-party review sites like Yelp have a huge influence on purchase decisions. Here are some tips for handling reviews and managing your reputation:
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Respond promptly – Being responsive shows customers you value their feedback, even if it’s negative.
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Thank positive reviewers – Validation encourages followers to engage more.
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Diffuse negativity politely – Address issues transparently without being combative.
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Flag false information – Reports can get inaccurate or fake reviews removed.
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Encourage reviews – Occasional friendly requests provide more data points.
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Monitor sentiment – Tracking overall themes and sentiment helps identify opportunities for improvement.
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Highlight key reviews – Repurpose especially positive reviews as testimonials.
Proactively managing your review presence safeguards your online reputation.
Measuring Results
The most successful social media strategies use data to guide decisions. Make sure to consistently measure performance by tracking these key social media metrics:
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Follower growth – This indicates your brand awareness and reach is expanding.
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Engagement rate – Higher rates signal you’re connecting with your audience.
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Click-through rate – Shows content effectiveness at driving site actions.
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Lead generation – Track signups and conversions from social channels.
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Website traffic – Analyze referral traffic from social platforms.
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Sales attributed to social – Directly tied to revenue gained.
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Sentiment – Gauges how audience feels about your brand over time.
Analyze this data segmentally by platform, campaign, content type, etc. to see what’s working and optimize accordingly. Use benchmarks to set measurable goals.
Key Takeaways for Managing Social Media
- Develop a comprehensive social media marketing strategy aligned with business goals.
- Organize workflows, access, and processes to streamline managing multiple accounts.
- Create diverse, engaging content tailored to your target audience.
- Incorporate paid ads to expand reach and drive conversions.
- Proactively monitor and manage reviews and social conversations.
- Consistently analyze performance metrics to identify improvement opportunities.
With the right processes, tools and tactics for managing your social media presence, your efforts will become a core driver of business growth. Social platforms are constantly evolving, so continue educating yourself and experimenting to stay ahead of changes and maximize the benefits.
How to manage social media profiles
Its both an art and a science to manage social media accounts. Your data can give you a good idea of how to spend your resources—in terms of both money and time—but social moves fast. The platform delivering results today might take a dip tomorrow.
Diversifying your network strategy is a reliable way to make sure you’re ready for whatever challenges are thrown at you. An algorithm update on one platform is less of a shock to the system if you have a well-maintained presence across the social landscape.
This is where a social media management tool becomes a must-have. Posting natively (logging into each social network individually to post) across social media profiles is a huge time commitment. Factor in engagement and monitoring, and it becomes more than a full-time job.
Tools like Sprout help businesses scale social operations sustainably. Publishing workflows support customization by network while minimizing risk. After all, managing quality control is much harder when your team is running social natively.
These publishing and scheduling features automate and complement existing processes so you can get out of the weeds and into the bigger picture.
Social media community management
Online communities have been around for a while, but they’ve never been more important than they are today. Take Oatly’s TikTok account for instance. The food company joined the platform in October 2022 , earning over 600,000 followers and 8.5 million likes in only six months.
Oatly uses the TikTok comments to showcase their brand voice, interact with their audience and respond to organic conversations. For example, when comedian Simon David made a funny video about Oatly’s theme song, the brand responded quickly in the comments. Their comment earned over 20,000 likes—almost a third of all likes on the video.
This example shows how conversations with your community dont have to be product-focused all the time. Posts that aren’t product-related still provide social teams with an invaluable look into the needs of their audience. If you want to stay in tune with your target audience, you must use community management on social media to give them a place to make connections.
Like Rome, building an active social community isn’t possible in a day. Whether it’s the TikTok comments or Facebook Groups, if you’re launching a new program or an entirely new community, take a slow and steady approach. Consider starting with an invite-only or beta program designed for loyal customers and power users to test-drive your strategy. Once you’re in a groove, you can expand to a larger audience.
How To Become A Social Media Manager – Beginners Guide
FAQ
How does a social media manager help a company?
How much do social media managers charge?
How do you manage social media?
Social media management requires strategy, an in-depth understanding of both the company and their target audience and developing engaging content consistently. In this article, we explain how to manage social media with steps and tips to ensure you run accounts effectively. Why is managing social media important for a company?
How do you manage social media for a big company?
Managing social media for a big company isn’t a one-person job. It involves input and approvals from various teams across your organization. Want to execute your social strategy and manage everything efficiently? You need the right tools to standardize processes, protect your brand and save employees’ time.
What are the best practices to manage company social media accounts?
Learning the best practices to manage company social media accounts can help gain customers and establish a well-loved brand. Social media management requires strategy, an in-depth understanding of both the company and their target audience and developing engaging content consistently.
How to use social media management tools?
Use popular social media features such as Instagram stories, Facebook polls, and Twitter Live to engage and interact with followers. Social media management tools like Hootsuite make it easy to plan, create, and publish content for your various social networks in one place.
